


Under the Farraige

by SpaceDragon435



Category: Sean McLoughlin - Fandom, Subnautica (Video Game), jacksepticeye, mark fischbach - Fandom, markiplier - Fandom
Genre: AI Jack, Ah!, Alien fish monsters, Angst, Aurora survivor Mark, BUT IT'S STILL GOOD PLEASE CONSIDER IT, Blood, Bromance, Explicit Language, Fear, Fights, Fllllluuuuuuffffff, Fluff, Friendship, Horror (slightly), Humour, I tagged it septiplier for views!, Jokes, Mild Gore, Ocean exploration, Other, Septiplier - Freeform, Sorry I just want people to appreciate me!!! D:, Subnautica, Survival, but not romantically, no relationship yet, one more time! NOT ACTUAL SEPTIPLIER
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2017-11-18
Packaged: 2018-07-23 23:53:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7484820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceDragon435/pseuds/SpaceDragon435
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mark Edward Fischbach is stranded on an /ocean/ planet. And he's about as happy about it as you would think. That is: not at all. However, a sentient, smartass and Irish AI may be able to make it at least a little better. Or worse. Depends how you look at it really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So you may have seen this first chapter on my Tumblr (probably not)  
> Well due to the insentient nagging of a friend (love you FS) I decided to post it :D  
> So enjoy.

 Pain

                                                                Heat

                Sticky...blood?

                                                Moving?

Headache

                                What?

                                                                Confused

                Pain

                                                Water?

 

Hazy deep brown eyes opened slowly, staring forward uncomprehending for a few seconds before blinking quickly and scanning the environment. As comprehension dawned, said haze disappeared and was replaced by fear.

The owner of the eyes tried to scramble to his feet in an attempt to gather his bearings, ignoring how he almost fell over again due to the combination of severe head rush and the fact that the floor seemed to be... moving? Once he regained his balance he was able to survey his surroundings a little better and was alarmed at what he saw. He was in a room of some description, it was very small and electronic devices were strewn everywhere inside it such as panels, as well as a few bottles of water and a couple of ration packets. A large panel also seemed to be missing from the back wall, golden and blue sparks arching from it before disappearing before they managed to hit the floor. That looked dangerous, but thankfully it seemed some kind of defense system had activated that prevented the room from blowing up, something that made him very thankful.

The man held a hand up to his head, then paused when it touched something warm and slightly sticky; confused, he pulled it away and held it up to his face. His fingers were red, a head injury? Applying a slight pressure to the wound and wincing slightly, the man racked his brains to try and remember something, where was he? Why was he in this room? What had happened? What was his name? This last question bothered him the most, amnesia was dangerous and since it was obvious he had it he had to find a way to remember what happened. Something was wrong, he could feel the dread pulling at his gut and he shook his head to try and re-arrange his thoughts into something resembling order. Something around here had to have some sort of data about him, it was unfortunately just a case of trying to focus himself enough to find it.

Catching sight of a compartment fitted snugly into the right wall of the room, the man walked over to it (albeit a bit wobbly) and opened it, revealing a thin data pad. Perfect. Picking it up he raised it to his face and squinted, however he couldn't seem to see very well for some reason. The pad had clearly seen better days as there seemed to be a long crack that ran like veins across the screen, but other than that appeared to be functional at least. Swiping a hand across the screen he watched as it lit up and bathed his face in soft blue light, meanwhile a monotonous female voice filtered through the speakers, sounding a little bit broken and scratchy, but understandable.

_"Identification required. Please initiate retinal scan"_

A little orange circle suddenly blinked onto the screen, the transparent outline of an eye inside of it. Frowning slightly, the man raised the tablet to his face and waited patiently as it scanned his iris, unfortunately due to the damage the pad had sustained during the crash, it failed the first time. Trying not to freak out or do something rash, the man tried again.

_"Retinal scan failed. Please make sure to keep your head steady"_

It's okay. It's okay. It's just broken, calm down, try again. One more time. With suddenly shaky hands he once again raised the tablet to his face and opened his eye slightly wider than the previous tries, not daring to breathe lest he disturb the sensor.

_"Retinal scan completed. Welcome Sir."_

The sudden exhale of relief nearly made the man dizzy. Looking over the commands on the screen he saw one labelled 'Identification' and hastily pressed it, silently cursing his clumsy haste as he missed it once before managing to hit the icon. The female voice poured from the speakers again, reciting the information the man desperately wanted.

_"Mark Edward Fischbach. Aged 26 years old. Engineer - Beta Division aboard the Aurora. Birthday: the-"_

The man, now known as Mark, stopped the recording with a tap to the screen as he was assaulted with memories. He'd been on the ship with his friends, what were their names? Robert and Waldo? No, not Robert, Bob! Bob and... Bob and Wade! He's been with Bob and Wade when suddenly the alarms went crazy, telling everyone to get to the life pods as they were about to crash. Everything was fuzzy from then on, but he remembered screaming, and people running around trying to get to the life pods before anyone else... because there wasn't enough for everybody.

Shaking his head to clear away the sudden memories, Mark gave his surroundings another look around. So it wasn't a room, it was a life pod! He made it! He actually made it! Though his moment of relief was abruptly cut short when the truth slammed into him with all the subtlety of a truck. Yes he made it, but what about his friends? Did they make it? What about his family? No. No... His family wasn't on the ship, they were home on Terra. But, where was he? Mark glanced up and gripped the bottom rung of the ladder, stopping momentarily to adjust, he pulled it a few times just to make sure it would hold his weight. When he was sure it would he let go and turned back to the data pad, memory coming back and allowing him to efficiently navigate the different menus. Eventually he reached the first-aid kit locator.

_"First-Aid kit is located in the westward compartment. Lock code 101-17-8144"_

Quickly locating said compartment, Mark inputted the code into the door and watched as it swung open before pulling out the red first-aid kit and opening it. After taking care of his head wound as best he could, as he wasn’t a medical professional in any sense of the word. He located the small box in the top right of the box and carefully slipped it open, reaching in and pulling out a tiny pair of curved gelatin-plastic contacts before slipping them into his eyes, sighing as the world came into focus. Well... the pod at least. He honestly preferred his glasses, but as they were probably in thousands of pieces strewn across the lifepod, he decided to stick to the contacts, plus they would last longer as he didn’t have to take them out. Sliding the box into his inventory Mark stood up and focused his attention on the ladder once again, gripping it and heaving himself up rung by rung till he was able to reach the hatch. Like everything he had tried since waking up that required some muscle coordination, It took a couple of tries, but eventually he got it open and winced at the blinding sunlight that hit him directly in the face. At least he could breathe, that was a good sign. The pod wouldn’t of let him out had the air been toxic.

Pulling himself fully up the ladder and balancing on the top of the lifepod, he was finally able to get a good look at the planet he had landed on. And with that uttered his first words since coming to. His voice scratchy but full of a deep anguish.

"Of course it’s a fucking **ocean** planet"


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark's first days.

Mark loved space. Let it never be said that Mark Edward Fischbach did not absolutely **love** space. It was the exact reason that he joined up on the Aurora program in the first place, beating out the fact that it was a massive honor and the fact that he would finally be challenged in his line of work. However, none of that had mattered to him - He was going to **_space_** _._ His family had been exceedingly proud of him and had sent him off with hugs and tears, asking him to get in touch with them maybe once in a while and to be good. And he had been; he had loved his job, being able to look out of the window and see the endless expanse of the cosmos right in front of him, it made him giddy. And throughout the year he spent on the Aurora, he never lost that love for space, never got bored of it, never lost interest. He kept his excitement, his longing to explore it, his desire to see it, his want to study it and learn all of his secrets. He felt at home on the Aurora, suspended in a giant ship making its way through galaxies and past stars and planets, it was amazing.

However.

Mark Edward Fischbach also **_hated_** the ocean. He despised everything about it, the fact that he felt so helpless in it, the fact it was so... wet, the darkness, the possibility of a gigantic sea monster that could shoot out of the depths and eat him. Everything about the ocean was just a big 'nope' to Mark, similarities to space be damned. So when Mark opened the top of the pod to come face to face with an _ocean_ planet. It was safe to say he wilted and was overcome with emotions, mostly anger, disbelief and fear. But there was also a sort of grudged amusement there, because OF COURSE it had to be an ocean planet; of all the planets in the known universe it was the one that Mark literally both feared and hated the most. And he was now stuck. On said planet. Said _ocean_ planet.

Trying to calm his breathing, as suddenly oxygen had become much harder to get than usual, Mark sat down on top of the life-pod. What number was he? Doing an slightly odd-looking maneuver, he bent his head over the side of the lifepod and looked at the large pale orange number painted onto it.

5

Okay then. Mark swung himself back up and tried to think about what he was going to do to try and survive. He couldn't hunt fish, heck! He didn't want to go in the water if he could help it. Not only was this an ocean, it was an alien ocean; one that had never been explored by humans, one that had never even been touched by mankind till now. Which was a very very **very** terrifying thought. Especially for someone who believed that the ocean was death incarnate. However. He had limited rations and he would probably run out in roughly a week or so, which wasn't very long at all, especially when stranded on your literal nightmare. Just his luck.

Overcome by a sudden wave of helplessness, Mark put his head in his hands and ran them through his hair; stopping with a wince of pain when he hit the bandage. Looking over the edge of the pod he tried to look in the water and see his reflection, it was moving and distorted, but seemed to work fine as a replacement mirror. Dark eyes, black hair that was a bright red on the top, a very small amount of stubble; it was definitely him. The only thing that was missing were his glasses, but as he had deduced before, they had obviously not survived the crash. Even if they had, he supposed, he heavily doubted that they would be useful for when he had to go get some resources. As much as he wanted to, he knew that he couldn't stay in the life pod until he was rescued; it was inevitable that he would have to leave at least some time in the near future.

_"Readings from-"_

"Aaargh! Jesus fucking Christ!!! Mark flailed as he tried to stop himself from falling spectacularly off of the top of the lifepod. As he regained his balance he glared at the tablet and went to press mute, but stopped when his ears actually caught what it was saying about the Aurora.

_"- zero life signs detected. High radiation levels detected. The main drive core, has malfunctioned. The primary dark matter containment field has dropped to 36% appetent. Continuing to monitor."_

That... wasn't good. First of all the zero life signs was worrying, there had been a **lot** of people on the Aurora, and the fact that the implication that **everyone** had died was downright terrifying. And Bob and Wade had been there with him! What if they were dead!? Of course, survivors could of gotten in the life-pods and be floating out in the ocean somewhere much like himself at the moment... or they could have been eaten by the undoubtedly horrible, awful, terrifying, sucky, monsters that lurked below the surface. Which wasn't a very comforting thought at all, and did nothing to soothe his raging terror about his predicament.

After calming down and ridding his mind of all the negative thoughts and fear that he could. Mark leaned backwards and flopped onto the roof of the pod, staring at the impossibly blue sky and the white-grey clouds that floated in it. During his staring, he began to feel the faintest pangs of hunger within him, but ignored them. One, because he didn't want to waste any ration packets due to the fact that the sooner they were gone, the sooner he would have to go in the water. And two, because he didn't think he could eat anything at that moment without getting sick, partly because of his fear, and partly because of his head wound.

Deciding that he had a lot of work to do before he could be rescued, Mark climbed back into life pod 5 and set to work fixing the inside with the limited tools he had access to, and unfortunately he would need a welder if he wanted to do anything that would last more than a couple weeks or so. Thankfully Mark wasn't an engineer for nothing and was able to do a good job with what he had. Now he just had to focus and work and find out a way to get rescued so he could go home.

**~4 DAYS LATER~**

"Nope nope nope nope nope nope NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE-AAAAARRRRGH!" Mark erupted from the water and heaved himself up the outside stepladder rungs of his lifepod. He barely registered the climb up but managed to pull himself back together once reaching the top and collapsing onto it, all the while removing the breathing apparatus from his face. He thankfully didn't need any type of goggles due to the fact that the contacts he had found in the pod were specially designed for underwater use, using some of the best microtechnology inventors and engineering had to offer.

"I... **HATE** the ocean" he lamented loudly.

Sighing and staring at the sky, Mark dragged a hand down his face and used his other hand to fish the tablet out of his inventory. Over the four days he had been stranded on this planet, "Karen", the affectionate name he had given the AI uploaded in his tablet, and now his new Seamoth, had begun to fail. It... She? No, it may have a female voice program but it's still kind of an it. Anyway, it had begun to... glitch? Karen had obviously sustained substantial damage during the crash and had begun to steadily break down. Often it would not tell Mark when his oxygen was low, or would stutter for minutes on end. It was annoying, but mostly worrying because Mark didn't know what he would do if Karen actually failed and shut down. It was sad, but Mark knew he had become attached to the personality-less AI, it was hard not to, considering it was the only thing he could even remotely communicate with. Without it, Mark wondered if he would have succumb to island madness already. Ocean madness?

"That would suck" he said out loud.

Mark had also during his short adventures, come to learn early on that talking to himself was the only way to exercise his voice. Often he found himself just singing or talking to either himself or to random objects or fish just to make sure he didn't forget how to talk. Kind of an overreaction, but Mark thought that that fear was justified, despite all the other thoughts that told him that he was being kind of ridiculous. Plus, it wasn't like there was anyone else on the planet to criticize him or call him crazy or insane or something along those lines. So that was a plus... he guessed.

Rolling onto his side Mark stood up and put his breather back on before jumping into the ocean again. He didn't _want_ to, at all, but he needed more acid mushrooms and lithium before he could build a welder, and after that, then he could finally work on preparing a new base to reside in temporarily while he figured out a way to get rescued. He also needed to somehow find a way to send some sort of signal out to the Corp that the Aurora was a part of. While Mark did work on the Aurora, the Aurora wasn't a company, it was a ship, the company it was a part of a corporation, the Alterra cooperation to be more exact. A corporation that Mark happened to know would be in this sector at this point of time, so all he needed was to send a transmission to the Corp and they would send out a retrieval ship to collect him. Mark decided to ignore the tiny voice in the back of his head that said that they probably wouldn't bother since he was only one person. However, he also know that he was an engineer, and there were not that many who took that career route, since welders were common enough to not need engineers. However, it was engineers who designed the welders, engineers that fixed things welders could not, then there was biomedical engineering which machines were not the greatest thing for. So hopefully his status as an engineer would persuade someone to come and save him.

As he pondered this, he swam towards the cave system near the lifepod. To build a welder, he had to find something called crash powder, and something in his mind was telling him that he wouldn’t like retrieving it. Mark hoped that hunch was wrong.

~V~

Mark breathed heavily as he removed the crash powder from the nest, god he absolutely despised those exploding douchebags. He should have fucking known to trust his gut and the bad feeling crawling on the back of his neck, now twenty minutes later and with multiple scrapes and bruises all over his body, he was debating whether he should have becomes a psychic. At least he almost had enough crash powder to build the welder now, he just needed one more load of it and then he could finally make one in his fabricator. And then he could start building a base, and a vehicle bay, which would also give him some mode of transportation like a Seamoth or a Cyclops. He also needed some materials to create a Seaglide, which would help him get around the planet much faster than his limbs possibly could, oh, and some charging fins, and an extra oxygen tank. Actually… he needed to make quite a lot of stuff before actual progress could be made. The thought made him want to sigh, but he refrained because that would use up more oxygen than he wanted. However, he needn't have bothered as soon after he yelled out in fright as Karen's slightly glitchy voice practically exploded through the speakers.

_"Caution. Readings from the Aurora, suggest erratic fluctuations in the primary dark matter containment field. A breach of the main drive chamber may cause a cascading quantum flux detonation."_

That sounded... bad. Being an engineer, it wasn't too hard to understand much of the technological jargon Karen was programmed to use. Basically it was talking about an explosion. And that a critical machine inside of the Aurora was beginning to fail and if not fixed soon, it would rupture and make the entire ship blow up. Thankfully due to Karen's scan earlier, he knew that there was nobody on board the ship, so that was the good news. The bad news was that Mark couldn't even go to the ship to try and fix the drive because of the radiation that surrounded it, not without a radiation suit, which would take quite a while (and a lot of resources) to make.

He supposed that however in the end it didn't really matter. Even if Mark was somehow able to create a radiation suit, swim to the Aurora, and fix the machines before they reached a more than critical state so that it didn't explode. It wouldn't really matter anyway as the Aurora wouldn't be pilotable or flyable anyway, it was just too damaged. Plus, Mark had begun to remember the time before the crash a little more clearly as time progressed, one thing that stuck out to him the most was the fact that the people in the room he was in with at the time were talking about how the ship had been hit by a mysterious energy pulse. The pulse had apparently shut down the piloting machines and software, causing the gravity from the water planet to be able to easily pull them down onto its surface. The thing that worried Mark the most about that, was that there was potentially something here that was able to shoot an energy pulse, not just that, an energy pulse strong enough to take down the Aurora, a ship known for being one of the most safeguarded vessels in the Delta452 quadrant.

_"Emergency. Low levels of oxygen detected"_

Jumping somewhat, as best as one could "jump" in water, Mark realized that his breaths had been becoming harder and harder to take in the last few minutes. It was this realization that propelled his body upwards towards the surface, his arms pumping as hard as they could and his legs kicking as fast as he could make them. When he broke the surface of the water, Mark turned to give a contemplative look to the Aurora, the thing that his thoughts had been straying to for the past few minutes or so. He felt so... helpless. If there were even any working transmitters on the ship, which was highly unlikely due to the pulse, the crash, and the failing machines, then Mark wouldn't even be able to get or use any. For one, he didn't have any time, he didn't have a radiation suit, and he also wouldn't be able to just go in and grab it and come back to his life pod, because not very much of the equipment on the Aurora was waterproof. There were not a lot of ocean planets that had been discovered, and the Aurora was not meant to be an exploration vessel that landed on the new worlds, they had the pods and drones for that sort of thing. 

_"Warning. Readings from the Aurora exhibit characteristics consistent with technical degradation of the dark matter containment field. Spikes in quantum fluctuations suggest an uncontrolled cascade detonation will occur with a probability of 83.5%. A safe radius of at least 150 meters must be r-r-r-r-e-e-aa-cc--hzzzzzttttt-ee--zzz-d f-oooo-rzzzzztt s-s-s-s-sa-f-f-fe zzzzttt zzzzt zzzzzzzt zzzzzzt zzzzzzzzzzz. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep"_

Well that wasn't good. Raising the waterproof watch that was connected to his tablet to his face, Mark tried to speak as clearly as he could into the microphone. He almost called it Karen, but stopped himself at the last second, he hadn't had a chance to program the name he chose into the AI so it wouldn't register "Karen" as its name.

"Computer, run a diagnosis on your AI and give me a damage report"

A small icon appeared in the top right corner of his watch screen and blinked, showing the scan was running and telling him not to turn off the watch. Mark waited patiently for the 1 and a half minutes that it took to complete it.

_"Di-i-i-i-aagno-sssssi-s-s-s com-p-l-lzzzzeeeeeet-"_

"Computer, switch to text mode" ordered Mark immediately. He didn't want to have to listen to the ridiculously stuttery and failing voice program try to deliver the results of the scan. A dark teal box with a bright turquoise trim and text was displayed in the center of the screen. It flashed a few times and glitched, but eventually settled enough to be able to read.

_Results from diagnosis_

_AI Efficiency: 32%_

_Chance of AI failure: 96%_

_Repair programs: 2_

_Functional Repair Programs: 0_

_Corrupted Repair Programs: 2_

_Supposed time till AI Breakdown: 5- days_

_Backup AIs: 0_

"Goddammit" huffed Mark as he read over the results from the scan. This was also less than good. If fact, it was actually pretty abysmal to be honest.

"And no backup AIs" he continued as he looked at the last sentence. However even as he said that out loud, the zero flashed into a one for a split second before returning to how it was previously. Mark narrowed his eyes, why did that happen? Maybe since the AI was making his stuff glitch so much it was just a mistake and there were actually no other AIs just like it had originally said. However... an alternate thought stayed at the back of his mind that he tried to bay no attention, but failed. What if the zero had been the incorrect one? And what if the glitch had revealed the correct amount? Trying to stop his thoughts from straying too far into those theories, Mark dove back under the water and started farming for more scrap metal.

**3 Days later**

Mark finished scanning a Seamoth fragment and checked how many that were left, 50% of the Seamoth blueprints completed. He needed 2 more fragments and then would finally have all the information and blueprints needed to craft his own Seamoth, then he would be able to get around a lot easier and go a lot deeper. Not that he particularly wanted to venture deeper into the deathness that was the ocean, but it would still come in handy nonetheless, even if it was just for getting around considerably faster than he could swim... and he would feel a lot less exposed.

_"C-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-caaaaaaaaatiiiiiiioo-"_

Mark held a hand to his ear as Karen's extremely broken voice echoed in his eardrums.

_"-sssss-s-s-sssstarrrrvaaa-t-t-t-ti-oo-on iii-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-iii"_

Mark found himself holding both his hands over his ears as the speakers began to emit a really high pitched wail that was almost painful. It lasted a few seconds but after it finished, the speakers released a series of splutters before a stereotypical "power-down" noise. Then silence.

"Karen?" Mark asked as he swam towards the surface

"Computer?" he tried again. No response.

He knew it was pointless. "Karen" had finally broken, it didn't surprise him, he knew that Karen had only had a 4% chance of remaining functional. And even then, it would continue to be in that god-awful screechy stutter because there were no functional repair programs to fix it.

It was then that the reality of the situation really hit Mark.

He was truly alone.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Development

Surviving the alien ocean planet without an AI was much much harder than expected, even if said AI was simply a monotonous female droning voice that told him when he had low oxygen or needed to eat something or whatever. Still, it did make surviving a lot more difficult because Mark tended to forget that food was actually a thing that he needed to survive, water as well. Besides all of that, there was also the problem about the lack of any communication at all really beginning to get to Mark and affect him, he was slowly beginning to realize that he was talking to himself more and more and commenting on the most random of topics.

"SANCHO! You lazy sack of crap! You scared away my dinner!"

Sancho, the gigantic alien jellyfish thing, also known as a Reefback, didn't seem to care that he had just used his massive bulk to scare away a group of peepers that Mark had been intending to use for his lunch, making them swim away as fast as their little tails could propel them. Mark glared at Sancho and sighed, before powering up his Seaglide and using it to swim off to try and find something else for his lunch.

16 days. 16 days he had been marooned on this stupid wet planet. 12 of which had been spent without Karen, the previous, and now totally broken, AI. As much as Mark found her annoying with her constant "nagging" that made him start with fear Every. Single. Time. He had to admit that he missed having someone around to talk to, even if they didn't talk back. During the fourteen days, Mark had actually made some great progress; he had constructed a Seamoth, a Seaglide, a Cyclops, a vehicle bay, a few minor tools, and was currently working on his base, which was habitable, just not the largest of living areas, being only one multipurpose room and a corridor big. But it was bigger than the life pod so Mark counted it as a bonus, it even had an aquarium, which was home to a single Garyfish. He was going to call it Gary, obviously, but decided that that was far too easy and had instead called it Steve.

Mark was the _pinnacle_ of comedy.

Opening the hatch to his base and climbing inside, Mark pulled the breathing mask away from his face and dumped it in the locker along with his oxygen tanks next to the hatch, which was essentially the equivalent of the front door. He also grabbed the towel lying there and rubbed it through his hair and over his face as he opened the door that led into the actual room. He had very quickly learned that hair dye, even permanent hair dye, lost its colour very rapidly when underwater almost all day every day; so the red had bled out somewhat except for a few stubborn streaks that clung to the ends, staining the previously black locks a bright red that was in the process of slowly changing into a dark orange. Thankfully he didn't actually have to dry his body as the diving suit repelled water when not submerged, which saved quite a lot of his time.

"Another day, another fail" lamented Mark as he slumped onto the chair he had built the previous night. It so far had turned out to be a use of his time and materials well spent.

It wasn't really his fault, catching fish was a lot lot harder when you were literally terrified of the place where they lived. Heck! If they couldn't hear his frantic heartbeat from at least twenty feet away then Mark would be majorly surprised. His phobia had probably gotten marginally better, but it was still quite far away from anything close to tolerable, which was not a great asset when your source of food always happened to be living in it. Still, he had a few ration packs saved up, even if there was probably only three or four left at this point.

Opening one of his lockers, Mark pulled out the... second last (eesh) ration block and ripped off the wrapping before digging in. It tasted dry and far too bitter, as well as getting stuck in his teeth, but he dealt with it, mostly because he didn't really have much else as anything he could have even possibly eaten at this point had all been scared away by Sancho. Stupid Sancho.

Mark finished off the ration block as soon as he could, after checking the dates on them yesterday it turned out that they were good for another few months at the very least, mostly because no one really ever paid attention to the "consume by" dates anyway. After that he stood up and disposed of the now empty dark green packet before moving to the corner he was currently using as a bedroom, could it be classed as a corner if the room was a circle? Whatever. Anyway. So far it only had a single bed and a desk that was littered with papers and blueprints, mostly lists of materials he would need to build a transmission radio so he could send a message to the main division of the Alterra Space Exploration Company to come and save him.

He didn't have much hope, but whatever hope he did have he clung to with everything he had, because he knew as soon as he lost that small amount of hope then he probably wouldn't survive too much longer. Spite and grim determination can only get you so far along alone. Luckily Mark considered himself to be quite an optimistic person and reckoned his chances were fairly decent, the Alterra Corp's 6th shuttle should be orbiting in this sector looking for the missing Aurora. If he could just get a signal out to them it would probably only take 2-4 days for them to reach the planet and get him off of it, but in order to do that he first needed to actually build the radio. And to do that, he needed to find the plans that were either on the Aurora or scattered around the world. Ugh.

Closing his eyes Mark rested his head on the gelatin-like pillow and breathed deeply, the oxygen was filtered from the surface into the base and was... different to Earth's oxygen, much purer and lighter. Mark both hated it and liked it. Liked it because it was much clearer than Earth's oxygen, but also hated it because it was so different and constantly reminded him that he wasn't on his own planet.

"Steve, do you miss the ocean now that I took you out of it?" he asked absentmindedly. "Like, do you wish I would put you back? Or should I go catch some friends so you are not as lonely?"

Steve didn't reply. Mark knew on so many levels that it was literally impossible for the Garyfish to actually speak English to him, but surprisingly it still created a pang of loneliness and homesickness to resonate within him. Which he also knew was incredibly stupid of him... however this served to make him feel all the worse about it affecting him as much as it did. Still however bad it made him feel, a little voice in the back of his head remained, telling him that his feelings were justified, while a second said that it didn't matter because there was no one there to see him if he broke down. Mark preferred the first voice.

Looking out of the one glass pane he had built in his bedroom, Mark watched the water darken and the sun set. He had learned pretty speedily that on this planet days and nights were much shorter than on earth, something that messed up his sleep schedule for a few days, but to be honest it was so worth it to see the two moons floating in the sky. One so close he could see every single detail as clear as crystal, which probably contributed to (in Mark's opinion) the ridiculously short nights. The other much smaller and not as clear due to the larger distance between it and the planet he was currently residing on.

The sun was almost completely set, the moons rising into the rapidly darkening sky, one already clear and sitting comfortably in the atmosphere, the other only just peaking up from the horizon. It was beautiful. In a strange and alien way, but absolutely breathtaking nonetheless. Mark would say that it almost made being stranded on this planet worth it... if not for the fact that literally everything under the surface wanted him as dead as a doornail. Not that door nails were even used anymore nowadays, way too old fashioned. Still, that wasn't the point, the point was that all the creatures wanted to eat him. Not to mention the fact that the ocean was his greatest fear, couldn't forget that one. With the sight of the rising moons saved into his mind, Mark drifted off into a light sleep.

When Mark awoke it was to the sound of Sancho’s really loud call slamming through the ocean and practically rattling Mark’s base down to its foundations. Sitting up with a small yelp, Mark glanced out of the window just in time to see Sancho’s long tentacle-like tails disappear into the blue, though the echoes of his cry still rang in Mark’s ears. Glaring out of the window and making a silent vow to poke Sancho with his knife next time they ran (or rather: swam) into each other; Mark got up and walked down the ladder to his base’s main room. Once he was inside of it he pulled on his oxygen tanks and put his rebreather over his mouth before opening the hatch of his main base and swimming out into the ocean.

A decent while later Mark found himself rapidly hacking off pieces of creepvine while trying to swim up to the surface. Once he had broken said surface with a handful of creepvines, Mark ripped the rebreather from his face and breathed in deep gulps of oxygen.

“How in the **fuck** did I manage to reach starvation, dehydration _and_ almost die because of low oxygen all at once!?” he questioned himself with the most accusatory tone he could manage at his own stupidity.

Stuffing some of the creepvine into his mouth Mark reflected on how many close calls he had had since Karen had broken. Probably too many if he was being perfectly honest. Mark had never really had to bother remembering to eat, the house robots and alarms were more than enough to remind him, and on the Aurora it had become even easier, due to the importance of eating while in space, forced gravity be damned. But now that he had nothing to remind him, he had to fend for himself, and that was very annoying.

“Stupid body. Why can’t you ever be satisfied just how you are?” he questioned as he ate more of the creepvine. It was really salty and wet, and certainly not the most filling or satisfying of lunches, or meals in general, but it was a lot easier to collect than anything else in this stupid ocean; it neither swam away nor tried to attack him…which was definitely a breath of fresh air. After a while he began to feel his stomach stop aching and his throat soothe due to the fact that creepvines had a decent amount of pure water in them as well, making them a really good choice if he was both hungry and thirsty. Once he had finished eating he let himself float and stared at the sky, watching as the weird not-birds flew around, creating silhouettes against the blue.

“I can’t do this” he said quietly as the revelation hit him.

He wasn’t prepared for the harshness of the planet, for the hostility of the wildlife, for his own inexperience to get in the way of his survival, it was going to be the death of him. He was going to die here. The thought scared Mark more than words could express, he didn’t want to die yet, stranded on some unknown planet for his carcass to be eaten by those little red and blue piranha-like fuckers. However despite his will and want to survive, he could feel his hope rapidly falling away, slipping through his fingers as his mind went through everything that could go wrong and kill him, replaying images of his death, showing him being ripped apart by-

"Stop it!" he yelled as he cradled his head in his hands, applying pressure on it as if it would help him chase away the images. No. No. Calm down. Think. Breathe. What could he do? He guessed he could build a buzzer or something that would alert him when he needed to eat, drink, or get oxygen, maybe that could work?

Wait... Actually there was actually a problem with that idea. If he wanted to attach anything to his suit it would require a lot of patience and skill because the suits were designed to not accept any attachments, whether it be because of suicide bombers or secret EMP disturbing pulse generators. The only way to bypass this rule was to input a code. A code that Mark needed to ask for via a transmission or message, a code that changed every month. And since Mark had absolutely no way to contact anyone, or happen to know the code for this particular month, he was quite literally _screwed **.**_

"Aw come **on**!" he yelled to the sky, punching the surface of the water with his fist. There went the one piece of hope he had managed to salvage from his almost-meltdown, just fucking great. It took Mark a few seconds to realize that the water he felt in his face wasn't just water from the ocean, but the fact that he had begun to cry, he covered his eyes with his hands and just allowed himself to succumb to his sorrow for a while. However, that sorrow quickly became rage. Mark prided himself on the fact that typically he wasn't a particularly angry person (not counting when he played video games) and found constructive ways to deal with any negative feelings he might have. But this, he had never felt like this before, this- this sense of injustice, this feeling of helplessness, this deep anger. Some part of him knew he was lashing out, and that this wasn't going to help, but the voice was drowned out by a wave a pulsing hot, white rage. He screamed to the sky, dragging his legs through the water and smacking the surface, as if he could cause the planet and all of its inhabitant’s pain.

"FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU YOU PIECE OF SHIT! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! FUUUUUUUUUUUK!"

A small beep from his watch alerted him that his pulse was very high and that he should calm down; mind far too clouded with rage, Mark drew back his right hand and punched the watch directly on the message. Cracks erupted from where his knuckles made contact and stretched out to the opposite ends of the small screen. Despite this however, this was Aurora technology and Aurora technology didn't break completely by one measly human punch. The screen flickered to life, although horrifically glitched and hard to read. Somehow, Mark managed to calm himself down enough to read the small message that kept appearing and disappearing on the watch screen.

_High levels of destruction detected, would you like to use a backup AI?_

Backup AI? That didn't make any sense at all, during the scan Karen did it revealed that there weren't any other AI's left, unless... did this have something to do with the zero that flashed to a one for a brief second? Looking at the message, Mark clicked the 'yes' option and waited for the screen to stop stuttering so that he could read it.

 _List of AIs_  
S.U.Z.Y - Not available  
A.R.I.N - Not available  
D.I.N.O - Not available  
Backup AI 1 - Not available  
Backup AI 2 - Not available  
Backup AI 3 - Not available  
Emergency A1 - Not available  
S-erur8rh5k7k3f3r7l8ebgt - Aaaavvvva-a-a-aiiiiii--aabl-l-l-l-le

Only the last one said 'available', but the glitching was so bad Mark couldn't see what it was called. This screamed 'bad idea' at him, but right now, at this moment in time, Mark couldn't give less of a shit. He clicked the last option.

 _Uploading AI Shfrofrgrjp9irhg8rehyg_  
11% complete  
27% complete  
42% complete  
65% complete  
78% complete  
83% complete  
99% complete  
100% compl- Error, this AI does not exist. Please choose another.

"What the hell?" Mark muttered softly. All anger completely wiped out and replaced with raging curiosity. What was this? First of all Karen tells him there is no other AIs but the screen flashes a 1 for a small moment, second of all, the computer wouldn't of suggested him choosing an AI unless there was one that was functional. Third, it would have not bothered loading if there was nothing _to_ load... so why? Thoughts circling around his head like flies around a carcass, Mark shoved his rebreather on and dove under the water, heading in the direction of his base.

He had some questions that needed answering.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is my apology for taking ages to get the last chapter out ^^  
> Its a bit short but things are about to KICK. OFF.

"SON OF A BITCH!" 

Mark swore as he recoiled away from the sparking circuit board, holding his burnt finger close to his chest. Glaring at the circuit board as if he could somehow make it feel sorry for exploding it's transistor at him, Mark rolled his chair backwards away from his desk and sighed, spinning in a circle. 

He had been looking into this AI deal for two and a half days now, and despite his thoughts that it had just been a glitch previously, further experiments had proved him wrong over and over again. So far, every time he had initiated a backup AI selection program, the glitched name had appeared. He knew it began with an S, but all the letters (and numbers) after it were always different every time, and there was a lot more than three of them, four of course being the standard rule for naming AIs. Only roughly 1 in 3 times did the program actually even say that it was available, though trying to load it up when it did say it was available yielded a few different results.   
There was the one that he had originally gotten, where the AI would load fully before saying that there was no data to load and the AI didn't exist. But then there was one where it would start to load up to anywhere between 1 and 100 percent, which was incredibly strange. One other time a message had flashed up on the screen for about half a second before disappearing, which was obviously not enough time for Mark to actually read. So far he had not seen the message again since then.

"What do you think Steve? Am I wasting my time on nothing?"

Steve just ignored him and swam around his tank.

"You are absolutely useless you know that? Why haven't I eaten you yet?"

Still no reply.

"Nah I'm just kidding Steve, I wouldn't eat you... well, unless I got really hungry, like... near starvation."

The fish didn't seem particularly bothered by this so Mark assumed it was cool with him. Standing up Mark moved around the back of the chair and pushed it back under the desk, eyes lingering on the broken watch. He was beginning to regret punching it in his anger spurt, no wonder his system was all glitched, it was bound to be messed up if he kept destroying the electronic things it resided in. Donning his rebreather and oxygen tanks, Mark opened the hatch and swam out of his base, figuring that he could do some more work on this whole AI deal later. Right now though he needed to farm some materials. 

Linebreak

Oh good god did Mark hate having to farm crash powder. Not only was there literally no good alternative, he had to avoid exploding puffer-fish-like missiles and then grab it of the nest, hopefully without disturbing any other of the little satan-spawns that happened to be located around it. Not his idea of a good time if he was honest. Nevertheless he had done it, and now had enough powder to make over ten welders and even have some left over afterwards. Which was very nice. 

Letting his sea glide drag him towards the creepvine forest, Mark unsheathed his survival knife and began hacking at the tall plants. He needed some pods and some rations before he allowed himself to head back to his base, and he needed to do it before night fell. Because even though he had gotten slightly better about having to be in the ocean, night still freaked him the fuck out. At least his sleeping schedule had finally sorted itself out. He slept for a day and a night, and then would stay awake for a day and a night, due to the planet's shorter daylight cycle. During the time he was awake he would use the daylight hours to farm materials, collect resources and explore the planet a bit more, and would use the night hours to work on his plans for his rescue, the AI, and build stuff. 

Speaking of night time. Mark turned his eyes up to the surface and caught sight of the rapidly dwindling sun rays shining through the ever moving waves. He was running out of time. Powering up his sea glide once more, Mark angled towards his base and started heading back, once he was back he could begin to use his fabricator to use the materials he had collected and build some stuff that he needed. 

Linebreak

"Aw come on!" Mark yelled as he kicked the side of his base, though that did very little to the hull integrity. He couldn't believe it. His power was somehow down, something must have affected the system and now he had no power, which meant that he couldn't use his fabricator, which meant he couldn't build anything, which meant he couldn't even fix it. As amazing as the welder tool was, it wasn't the best at fixing system errors. In fact, as far as Mark knew there was barely anything that could fix a bad system error besides a really good programmer or hacker. In which Mark was neither, he also didn't have access to either of them either. So what was he supposed to do now? 

"I mean I could just use the fabricator in the life pod but it's probably going to be dark by the time I get there and then I'll have to swim all the way home... in the dark."

He had a flashlight, in fact he had two if he counted the one built into his seaglide, so it wasn't like he would be completely helpless, he would be able to see where he was going at least. But it wasn't so much the not being able to see as just the general creepiness of being alone in an alien ocean where anything could sneak up behind him and kill him with one downwards bite. However, the alternative was just to sit in his power-downed base, also in the dark, for several hours. Several hours that he could spend actually doing something productive like figuring out the AI or building the stuff that he desperately needed to help get off of this planet.

Faced with no other alternative, Mark readied himself to depart once again. Maybe if he felt that bad by the time it came to leave he could just stay in the life pod for the night. It wouldn't be so bad, he had done it for the first few nights he had been stranded here so one more wouldn't hurt. Leaving his base, Mark popped his head above the surface and once he located the life pod he began to head towards it, very very aware of the rapidly diminishing sunlight. 

Linebreak

"Okay, so, new oxygen tank, heated survival knife, energy generating fins, and an assload of glass and titanium ingots" Mark listed as he booted up the fabricator again. All he had left to do was make some batteries and he would be golden, oh and maybe a couple of power cells for his sea moth. 

However, just as he was about to put the materials needed into the fabricator there was an absolutely massive BOOOOOOOOOOM and angry orange light flashed through the top life pod window. Mark didn't even have time to react before a deep whoosh sound erupted in his eardrums and the life pod was suddenly flung into the air and began rolling across the surface of the ocean. 

Pain blossomed all over Mark's body. His back slammed into the ladder and he yelled, but there wasn't even enough time for the pain to fully register before the pod was rolling over again and Mark fell victim to gravity. His foot smacked against the fabricator and the compartment door grazed his leg, that was sure to leave a mark. It rolled over again and his head collided harshly with the wall of the life pod, making Mark see stars as his vision began to blur and darken around the edges. Slumping to the floor as the pod slowed down to just moving up and down, Mark let unconsciousness claim him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lmao I'm late

Mark's head was pounding, a dull continuous: thump, thump, thump, thump that refused to stop or go away, there was also a mildly high pitched sound ringing in his ears. It was very irritating. He wanted to sleep, his body was throbbing all over and moving or waking up seemed like the last thing that he wanted to be doing. However, as he was pulled further and further towards consciousness the sound became less like a siren, and more like... words?

"...move... up... you... making..."

Shaking his head to clear it and restore his hearing somewhat (although his head did protest firmly by sending him a sharp spike of pain), Mark gathered all of his currently scattered concentration and focused on actually listening to what he was hearing.

"-Dude! Are you okay!? Wake up!"

A human! Mark leapt to his feet, swaying dangerously as his vision was swimming and his balance overthrown. Not fully conscious of his surroundings or situation yet, the survival part of his brain took over the logic side and he began to freak out, confusion clouding his mind and he flailed his arms as he spun around again and again, looking for the source of the voice. He was lashing out, a small part of him knew that, but he was panicking far too much to keep any sort of calm in this situation.  
"Woah woah dude calm down! You're heart rate is far too high for someone with a head injury like that! Yer gonna pass out again if yer not careful!"  
Mark spun around frantically, getting more and more scared and overwhelmed when he couldn't see another body in the lifepod with him.

"Who are you?! Show yourself! Whe-"

However, just as the mystery voice had said, it appeared that Mark's heart rate had gotten too high and before his brain could even catch up with the fact, he had began falling. He collided with the floor of the lifepod, jolting his already bruised body and making him wince. Black started to creep up the edges of his vision and a pleasant numbness overtook him. It seemed far easier to give into the calming numbness than to get up so instead of fight it, Mark just closed his eyes and let himself pass out. The last thing he heard before unconscious claimed him for itself was the same voice as before sounding exasperated.

"Ye fucking idiot."

Linebreak

It wasn't too long before Mark came to again. He had no idea how long he had been out this time but at least his body was in less pain than it had been the last time, unfortunately his throat was dry and his stomach aching. Ignoring it for now, Mark pushed himself into a sitting position and got his bearings. Okay, so he was in the lifepod, something had pushed it over? But what? Besides a giant sea creature Mark was struggling to find another thing that could cause it in his frazzled mind. Whatever, he could ponder on it later. Right now he needed some food and some water, at least he was right next to a fabricator. 

Slowly standing up and trying his best to not focus on the twinges and spikes of pain that it caused, Mark walked over to the fabricator and tried to focus enough to make a bottle of water. He managed to make a bottle of bleach and load it into the machine, but with his vision swimming as much as it was, he was unable to activate the process that would provide him with the water his head was desperately craving.

The pain combined with the confusion and sense of helplessness was beginning to make tears form in Mark’s eyes, angry at his own patheticness, he slammed a hand into the ladder, ignoring the slight sting it created. A whir made him jump and he stared at the fabricator, which had just made the water that he was trying to make earlier… by itself. 

That, that wasn’t supposed to happen. 

“Hello?” he ventured cautiously.

“Hello” a voice responded, making Mark jump slightly. It was male, and, was that an Irish accent? 

“Uh. Who are you?” he asked carefully, looking around for the source of the voice; though he was 90% sure that he was still lying unconscious on the floor of the life pod.

“I’m an A.I, I was activated by the EMP waves created by the Aurora explodin’. I tried ta talk to you earlier but ye freaked the fuck out and ended up passin’ out like a goddamn idiot. Also, drink tha’ water before you end up unconscious again.”

Mark gaped openly as he reached for the water; that was some incredibly impressive programming. A.Is were usually never that complex, just being layers of code programmed to ask or state simple things. ‘Karen’ was one of the more complex A.Is, having had some retorts and sass put into the programming, but this? This A.I was on a different level altogether. He went to ask something else but soon realized that he throat was not going to cooperate with him and took a long swig of the water before trying again. 

“Computer, list damage report of the Aurora”

“Hey! I’m not a fuckin’ slave. If you want someting fair enough but none o’ this ‘computer’ business okay? I don’t call ye ‘human’ all the time.”

“Wait… computer, deactivate personality code.”

That command was something programmed into every single A.I, it was pretty self-explanatory as it got rid of the personal touches put into an A.I’s code and set them back to their original state, which was more like ‘Karen’ when it was telling him about his oxygen levels or something of the like.

“Uhhhh, dude are you okay? Ye seem a bit hurt. I can perform a scan if ye want me ta.”

“Holy shit” Mark breathed as he walked backwards so that he was pressed against one of the walls of the life pod. This was, oh my god. This was a real A.I, real artificial intelligence, like a human being, just without a physical body. In other words, something that had never been achieved by any scientist or person in the history of the universe. The thought had Mark’s thoughts reeling, why, when had this happened? Who did it? Whoever made this A.I would have been famous, but no one had ever heard of an A.I that was even remotely human-like before, even the most advanced A.Is were still just layers of programmed code, disguised as funny or witty responses. 

“I’m gonna take yer silence as a yes by the way if ye don’t say someting”

“Y-you… you’re real. W-what-“

“Look dude, yer tired and hurt, I would leave the thinkin’ ta me okay? Names S.E.A.N, but please just call me Jack alright? I don’t like being referred ta like some brainless computer alright?”

S.E.A.N… that was… 

“You were the hidden A.I! The one I couldn’t access for some reason!”

“Wha?”

“I knew there was some hidden A.I! I knew I wasn’t going crazy! But, then why were you so hidden in the code? Who hid you? And why?” Mark was more talking to himself now opposed to the A- Jack, but thoughts and questions were running absolutely rampant throughout his brain, theories, names, dates, everything that could possibly help him was being thought about.

“Uhh, yeah… at least I think so. I mean, I don’t really know where I am, or why I was supposedly hidden like ye say, but you kinda need to calm down. You’ve bruised yer leg, though thankfully it’s not broken, and ye also have a mild concussion. Look, do ye have a base ye- oh wait no there it is, I almost forgot I coul’ scan fer things like that, heheh, whoops. Alrighty, so it’s not tha’ far away, and ye have a Seamoth so tha’ makes our lives a lot easier. You done here? We kinda need ta get going” Jack explained, leaving Mark in even more of an amazed and confused mood than before. However, despite his amazement he was actually listening to the A.I’s words, and decided that his burning questions and desire to know could probably wait until he was healed. 

“Yeah I have a Seamoth, is it morning yet?”

“Yep, it’ll be night in a couple o’ hours though, so if ye feel up ta it we should probably get movin’”

“Right, okay, yeah let’s go.”

The climb back into his Seamoth was a difficult one, he had spent a while looking at the, now destroyed, Aurora before struggling into the submarine and leaning heavily against the seat. He was about to take ahold of the steering when Jack’s voice interrupted him, making Mark jump slightly.

“How are you in here?”

There was a disbelieving laugh that sounded a bit like static, but was most definitely pure amusement. “Ye must be more banged up than I thought. I’m an A.I Mark, I have access to all tech made by the Nebula Cooperation, and even if I didn’t I could probably hack it.”

“How do you know my name?”

“I read yer crew profile while ye were passed out.”

“Ah”

“Okay, since yer in no fit shape ta drive I think I’ll do it. Hold on, just need ta figure out how this works… right… okay, yeah got it. Let’s go.”

“Wait are you going to dri- woah!”

Mark’s stomach gave a small lurch as the Seamoth began moving through the water without Mark starting it up. Jack had obviously became some sort of autopilot, which was awesome, but at the same time scary, A.I’s weren’t supposed to be able to do that without permission. But then again, Mark knew that he should probably stop thinking of Jack as an A.I in that way. 

“Oh my god this planet is gorgeous!”

Looking out of the glass, Mark saw that they had reached the edges of the kelp forest, the slowly darkening azure water full of bio-luminescent fish and fauna. 

“Yeah it’s pretty” Mark agreed, “still sucks though.”

“What do ye mean?”

“The ocean. It sucks. It’s death, all of it, death.”

“Wait yer scared of the ocean?” Jack asked with a disbelieving yet amused tone.

“Yeah. And for good reason.”

“But ye work on a spaceship…”

“Space is different, space is… amazing. I worked my whole life to get a chance to go into space.”

“Space and the ocean are kinda similar ye know.”

“No they're not. Space is everything good in the world and the ocean id everything bad.”

There was a laugh

“Just yer luck tha’ you ended up stranded on an ocean planet then.”

Mark found himself chuckling as he rubbed his eyes, “yep, just my luck”

He yawned, the familiar movement of the Seamoth soothing him and trying to pull him to sleep.

“Hey ye can go ta sleep if ye want. I’ve got us. I’ll wake ye up when we get ta yer base.”

“Okay” Mark said slowly as his eyelids closed, suddenly exhausted. Alarm bells were going off in his head, telling him that he probably shouldn’t let a fully intelligent A.I pilot the submarine he was stuck in while he fell asleep. But he was too tired to care, so instead of worrying about it, he let his consciousness quieten down and fell into a restful slumber.


	6. (The REAL) Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I know I'm like 3 days late I'm so sorry but here you go!

"Wait what's all o' this?"

Mark lifted his head from where he was sitting on his mattress, distracted from his task of trying to fix his tablet, before realising that he couldn't actually see Jack, and consequently, what Jack was looking at. Was looking even the right word? Jack didn't have eyes, at least Mark didn't  _think_ he had eyes. How did AI's even see in the first place? Suddenly remembering that he had been asked a question, Mark brought himself back into the present situation and looked towards the ceiling, where Jack's voice was coming through the speakers implemented into his base.  

"All of what?"

After being awoken by Jack at his base, he had tiredly made his way in before collapsing on his bed, barely making it under the covers before he was fast asleep. With morning  had also come the memories of last night, which also lead to a conversation between Mark and the AI as they struggled to get to know each other at least a little better. Surprisingly, after the initial awkward stage of getting into a conversation, Mark actually found the AI extremely easy to talk to, and they got along very well for two people, well "people" who had not exactly had the best meeting in the world. Mark of course, did most of the talking, not willing to make Jack uncomfortable so soon after meeting him, but Jack also chimed in with his own questions and bits of conversation as well, claiming that he wasn't a fan of small talk in the slightest, something which Mark could wholeheartedly agree with. Plus it was nice, scratch that, incredible to finally have someone sentient to talk to, and through his giddiness there was an underlying worry that this was all just a dream induced by him smacking his head off of the life pod ladder.

“This”

“Jack I can’t see what you’re looking at. Hey do you see in infrared or anything?”

“What? No, I see how ye see, just…. Better. And I’m talkin’ about these plans over here on yer desk.”

Confused as to what the Irish accented voice was talking about, Mark got up and made his way over to the desk, taking a second to look at the papers scattered around. Ah. This was all of his AI stuff. All the notes he had taken about Jack and how to get him working was just lying on his desk in plain sight, but at the same time he couldn’t blame himself for it; it’s not like he was expecting a sentient AI to be reading them any time soon. Still, it was probably better to tell the truth than lie about it, could Jack detect lies? Damn he forgot how many questions he had.

“Oh, I was trying to figure out how to activate your AI, I didn’t have much luck”

There was a small burst of static from the speakers and Jack responded afterwards sounding mildly confused. “What do ye mean ‘hard ta find?’”

“You know” Mark explained vaguely as he waved his hand, “the thing that hid you in the code was complex, I couldn’t break it for the life of me, and I tried… a lot. I’m guessing that all my poking around in the code… loosened you? Is that even scientifically accurate? And the EMP blast from the Aurora exploding uncovered the final layers of code or something, ugh it’s complicated, and I’m not a tech guy unfortunately.”

There was a hum from the speakers, “what are ye talkin about?”

“What?”

“I wasn’t h- actually, you know what? Never mind”

Mark frowned, confused by the AI’s comment, but he didn’t say anything, not sure how to bring it up. Sighing, he made his way back to the bed, his half-finished ration packet sliding dangerously close to the edge of the mattress before Mark stopped it and gently tossed it onto his bedside table.

“Ye seem… surprisin’ly chill abou’ all o’ this”

Mark laughed at that, not taking his eyes off of the circuit board as he responded. “Yeah well I’m not about to look a gift horse in the mouth, I’ve been lonely for a long time, so instead of freaking out, which I’ve already done by the way, I’m just focusing on the happy fact that I finally have someone to talk to.”

“Fair enough. Though I did expect ye ta have a bunch o’ questions.”

“Oh I do” Mark confirmed as he began directing power to the new cell of the tablet, “but I know how annoying constant questions are, plus we kinda only me- just met so I’m trying to make a good impression.”

Jack laughed, the slightly static-ish yet still distinguishable laughter bouncing around the room. He had a nice laugh, it was a loud and bright sound, yet not obnoxious or annoying in any way, or maybe Mark was just biased because he had been so alone before now. Whatever its not like it mattered.

“Ye don’t need ta try an make a good impression fer me Mark, ye seem like a really cool guy, I’m happy ta answer some questions that you may have.”

Mark blinked, “really?”

“Yeah really” And damn Mark could practically hear the smile in his voice.

“Um, okay then… how did you pilot my sub? AIs aren’t supposed to be able to do that unless equipped with an autopilot feature, which mine didn’t have.”

“Uhhhhh” Jack said helpfully, “I didn’t have any problems getting in at all. I guess it’s because I have access to all of the Nebula Corp’s tech, so taking control of machines is easy. Plus I can sort of… how do I put this inta words fer a human ta understand? I can sorta, hurdle over the obstacles that woul’ prevent a normal AI from doin’ all tha’ stuff.”

“Oh, don’t worry that makes sense, kind of” Mark said as he processed the information. “Uh, do you know who your… creator is?”

“Yep!” Jack said sounding happy, “a man called Felix, he created me all by himself as part of a project or somethin’, I don’t really know much abou’ it. He created all of me programs and stuff, and his wife helped out a bit, I liked her. I wonder if I can see them again one day?”

Well that raised even more questions, if this Felix man had in fact created Jack, then why was the Irish AI buried in a bunch of hidden code? It didn’t make a lot of sense, but then again, maybe there was a really simple answer he just wasn’t getting.

“Wait so why are you Irish?”

"When I was bein' coded I asked if I could have a cool accent. I dunno, I kinda thought at the time tha' having a monotone voice would be borin'. So, I did a bit o' diggin' around the archives and watched a lot of videos about accents and stuff, eventually I decided on Irish. I dunno it was my favourite."

Mark had no idea before that that was what happened, but he supposed it made some sort of sense. At the same time, Mark was just an engineer, and had little to no idea how a normal AI worked, never mind a fully sentient one.

“No more questions?” Jack asked, sounding amused, making Mark realise that he hadn’t said anything for a least two minutes.

“Oh uh, well, plenty. But I think you’ve given me enough to think about for the moment, I’m sure that I’ll have plenty of time to ask you stuff considering I seem to be stuck here for the moment huh?” Mark gave a little laugh, though there was not a lot of humor in it, making it sound unnatural; laughs were meant to be a sound of joy, unfortunately, joy was not exactly something Mark had in spades at the moment.

“Are ye okay? You don’t sound too good”

Very suddenly assaulted by emotions he would much rather not be dealing with right now, Mark just nodded his head and went back to trying to fix the circuit board. For an AI that had to learn human emotions, Jack seemed to understand that Mark didn’t want to talk about it and went silent. The quiet lasted all of five minutes, and by the end of it, Mark was glad it was broken, as the awkwardness of the situation had just been increasing steadily.

“Hey, uh, I’m, I’m just spitballin’ here. But if yer lonely then I found some readings from some old bases and lifepods we can check out?”

To be honest, Mark wasn’t really listening at that point, just letting the words and sound of Jack’s voice wash over him, but at the mention of lifepods he perked up drastically, practically leaping off of his bed and startling Jack, if the little burst of static from the speakers was anything to go by.

“Wait are you being real with me right now?!”

“Uhhhh” Jack responded, sounding vaguely concerned, “yeah. I mean, do you want to go?”

“Of course I want to go!” Mark yelled, already donning his tanks and flippers, his brain abuzz with thoughts, thoughts about how he might not be alone on this planet after all, and how he could get off this stupid wet rock. For the first time in a while, Mark felt something that he had been frantically digging at with no success. Hope. However, before he could swiftly head into the second room of his base, he found his arm colliding with the cold metal of the door and screeching his mad dash to a jarring halt. Frowning at the sudden stop, Mark attempted to twist the lock a couple of times, but it wouldn’t budge, which was odd considering Mark got an electric locking door instead of a manual one in order to prevent things like this from happening.

“Uh, what the fuck?” he breathed, checking over the control panel for an explanation.

“It’s me” Jack said suddenly, making Mark snap his head up, again, as if Jack would be standing right in front of him, which of course he wasn’t.

“What do you mean it’s you?”

“I’m the one stopping the door from unlocking Mark.”

Trying not to jump to conclusions, or let his brain wander into the dangerous territory of thinking that Jack was not a sentient AI, but an evil program, Mark took a deep breath to center himself. Though his voice still had a slight edge to it when he started talking again.

“Why are you stopping me from leaving?”

Jack must of picked up on the concealed anger in Mark’s tone because he took a second to respond, and when he did, it was in a more warm, soothing tone, as if Mark was a wounded animal on the verge of lashing out. Which technically speaking, he was.

“Look, I don’t want to stop you, but yer still hurt Mark, yer head hasn’t completely healed yet and neither has yer leg. The best thing fer you right now is to sleep, and rest. In the meantime, I’ll scan the lifepods for signs of human life, if there is any, we’ll go straight away. If there’s not, we won’t. Okay?”

Ignoring the instinctual wave of stubbornness, Mark forced himself to calm down and think about what the AI was telling him. He was angry, angry at himself for considering what Jack had told him, angry at the Aurora for exploding and putting him in this mess, angry at Jack for even considering the fact that Mark would wait instead of go out and search for his fellow crew and passengers, who might still be alive! But Mark also knew that when he was angry he didn’t think straight, and didn’t dare move until he had calmed and considered. Jack was right, as much as it sucked to say it, the AI was right when he said that Mark was hurt. Although he had done his utter best to ignore and treat it, Mark’s leg was still bruised and throbbed whenever he put too much strain on it, ie, his mad sprint to the door, and although his head didn’t hurt as much as his leg, he still had a concussion, and knew that it would be dangerous for him to be outside at this time.

“Mark?”

“Yeah” Mark said eventually, sounding so defeated that the AI almost considered opening the door just there and then. “You’re right, I know you’re right. Ugh! I’m sorry.”

The engineer walked back to his bed, wincing at the pain radiating up his leg and lay on his back, staring mournful and irritated at the celling of his base. If he had had some first aid supplements this wouldn’t have happened. But he didn’t. And Mark wasn’t stupid enough to waste time and energy dwelling on what could have been, instead of what was happening now.

“You promise that we’ll go as soon as you find something?” Mark asked as he through his arm over his eyes and breathed deeply in an attempt to fall back asleep and aid the healing process.

There was a little chuckle as the lights of the base went out.

“I promise.”


End file.
